NIA U-turn in Malegaon blast case travesty of justice: Owaisi

Hyderabad, April 13 (IANS) AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday said the U-turn by the NIA in the Malegaon blast case was a “joke and travesty of justice”.

The Hyderabad Lok Sabha member accused the National Investigation Agency of playing politics at the behest of the political masters and on the bodies of 37 people who were killed in the blast.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief was talking to reporters at the party headquarters Darussalam on the NIA’s latest move opposing the discharge application of nine Muslims arrested in the blast case.

Owaisi asserted this would be a unique case in the annals of the Indian legal system.

“Now the trail will run on what basis? Who are the main perpetrators — nine Muslims or eight Hindus? How will the trail run now?” he asked.

Owaisi also said that Section 6 of the NIA Act was very clear which says that when a scheduled offence takes place, other investigation agencies have no role whatsoever.

After the case was taken over by NIA, the Maharashtra ATS and the CBI had no role. .

“Look at the sequence. Public prosecutor Rohini Salian was pressurised by the NIA to go soft on the accused. The witnesses’ statements of the 2008 Malegeon blast are missing,” the MIM leader said.

Owaisi demanded that the central government immediately discharge those nine Muslim youths because a party may come to power and go but the government is a continuous entity.

He hoped that the government would accept the discharge petition in the interest of justice and allow the trial to proceed.

He pointed out that Mecca masjid bomb blast accused Swami Aseemanand got bail as the central government and law enforcing agencies could not file a petition opposing bail in a higher court of law.

“Ajmer blast witnesses are turning hostile and we don’t know what’s happening in the Samjhauta blast case. So this is very clear-cut message that in terrorist cases, if there is a non-Muslim, the present political dispensation is going soft on them,” Owaisi alleged.